


Silence

by Khaleesi_0f_Trolls



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Race To The Edge (TV series)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Sign Language, This was random, death mentions, good lord help me, mild swearing, mute characters, please enjoy, this is the first time I wrote a fic where tuffnut was the love interest, why am I adding so many tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-12 10:57:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15993761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khaleesi_0f_Trolls/pseuds/Khaleesi_0f_Trolls
Summary: At a young age Kára Bjarnidotter lost her ability to speak, caused by the death of her mother and newborn mother. Years later when her father goes off to search for their chief Oswald of the Berserker tribe and leaves her in the care of her uncle who lives on BerkDespite being viewed as a threat and a spy for the Berserkers, Kára works to prove to her new friends tribe that she can be trusted, and works to build the strength to admit her feelings for a certain dragon rider





	1. Arrival

We're almost there Kára, almost there. In a few hours we’ll be reaching your new home.”

Kára shuddered at those last words. Temporary home, but her father made it sound like she was going to be living there for the rest of her life.

“You'll have to get used to it lass, because I'm not coming back until I find our real chief.” Bjarni, Kara's father, stated and frowned. “And I'm not leaving you on that island with that boy who just took the throne with that claim that he killed his own father.”

'Well that's one thing we can agree on.’ Kára thought to herself and rolled her eyes. Ever since she could remember, she and Dagur were never on friendly terms. Despite that their fathers were friends, they couldn't just seem to get along. And the fact that he just became chief had her father fearing he'd do something to her that he could easily get away with.

“Now your uncle hasn't seen you since you were little, so at least get to know him. His name is Audun, he's a fisherman, your mother's younger brother and hopefully he'll be willing to take care of you for the time I'm gone.” Bjarni added as he squinted at the horizon. “If not, I'm sure chief Stoick or Gobber will be willing to let you stay with them. You have your staff?” Kára nodded, lifting up the large staff that was almost as tall as her father, covered with numerous carvings she did herself. Her father grunted in reply before turning his attention to the horizon once more before talking again.

Within time, an island appeared in the distance. Kára immediately leapt from her spot and ran to the front of the ship to get a look at what she assumed was Berk. Unlike Berserker island, Berk looked enormous and had two large statues that they started to pass.

“I know how you must feel, that's how I felt seeing this island for the first time as a child.” Bjarni chuckled and let out a small sigh. “Of course that awe grew more when I first set eyes on the most beautiful woman of Berk: Astra Jorunn Thorson.”

Kára smiled, knowing who he was talking about. For years everyone had told her that her mother was claimed the most beautiful woman on Midgard, with her long ebony hair, gentle brown eyes and a voice so sweet and gentle that would even make a dragon melt, it almost sounded like she was some sort of goddess. Yet sadly her health was frail, and giving birth to Kára had made it a bit worse, but she managed to pull through at least.

Soon, they had arrived at the docks of Berk. Kára eagerly waited for her father to toss over the plank onto the docks so they could both get off. There weren't really that many other Vikings on the docks, just a few repairing their boats or braiding nets, ignoring the newly arrived ship.

“Now, let's go find Stoick to see where your uncle is at shall we?” Bjarni asked as he tied the ship to keep it from sailing off.

The two walked up the stairway that led to the main part of the village, crossing paths with a few other Vikings who were making their way down to the docks. Soon, they reached the top where the village was at.

“Now where is the- ah there he is!” Kára followed her father as he walked over to a large and muscular man who was talking with another villager. “Stoick! Chief Stoick!” The large man turned and his eyes widened in surprise.

“Bjarni? What in Thor's name are you doing here?” The man asked, waving the villager off as he walked to them.

“I came to find Audun, know where he's at? I have to leave somewhere and I wanted to leave Kára with him so she won't be alone.” Bjarni replied.

“Kára?”

“Yeah Kára, my daughter. I'm sure Audun mentioned meeting her the last time he came back from Berserker island.” The man Stoick looked over Bjarni to see Kára standing behind him, clutching her staff tightly.

“I can certainly see the resemblance to her mother and uncle.” Stoick commented. “Though she seems a bit taller than Astra.”

“Ah my little girl gets that from me!” Bjarni laughed as he gently pulled Kára out from behind him and ruffled her curly hair. “That and this mess of curls poor Astra couldn't tame no matter how much she brushed it!”

Kára immediately pulled herself out of her father's grasp and quickly scribbled something in the dirt. Bjarni bent down to read it, nodded to himself and looked at her apologetically.

“I'm sorry my dear, I didn't mean to upset you.”

“She can't talk?” Stoick asked in surprise and Kára nodded before she scratched something else into the dirt. “Ah, I see. Well at least you don't write in strange symbols like our healer Gothi, hardly anyone can read her writing. Perhaps we can introduce you two and she can teach you what she's writing. Anyways, let's go find your uncle so your father can leave. If we can't find him, you can stay with Gobber our blacksmith.”

The two followed the chief through the village, getting nervous looks from the other Berkians before they reached a house on the outskirts of the village. Fishing nets were strewn all around the yard, a lone chicken was poking around looking for seed and a large skull of what looked like a deer with large antlers hung over the door.

“He hasn't cleaned up since Astra left Berk, I keep telling him to but he just ignores me.” Stoick explained, gesturing to the mess.

“I'm sure Kára could help him, she's always been able to keep our home clean when I'm gone.” Bjarni assured him and looked to his daughter. “If he doesn't listen to you, you have permission from me to hit him over the head with your staff, hopefully it doesn't break the way it did when you hit Dagur with it a few years back.”

“Eh... speaking of which, is Oswald bringing him again for the annual treaty in a few days?” Stoick asked skeptically.

“Unfortunately.” Bjarni muttered in reply. “Too bad we can't leave him home, but since he's going to be chief he has to know how to do these things.”

“Well perhaps Kára can help Hiccup keep him in line.” Stoick suggested and looked to the teen. “That would be my son, I'm sure you'll like him and his friends.”

'I hate socializing...but if this kid and his friends are the complete opposite of Dagur, I wouldn't mind.’ Kára thought to herself and nodded at Stoick.

“Well, best be going now. Behave yourself my dear while I'm gone.” Bjarni said and bent down to press a kiss to Kára's forehead. “And don't let folks push you around, just because you can't speak doesn't mean they have every right to be rude.”

I'm sure the staff and the fact that I am a Berserker will keep them away. Kára wrote and her father chuckled.

“Of course, you are right my dear. Well, take care Kára.”

“Ah, I just remembered right now Audun went off on a fishing trip.” Stoick commented. “You can stay with me and my son for now until he returns, are you alright with that?

Kára nodded before gesturing to the mess around the yard with her staff.

“You can wait until Audun returns from the trip, I'll introduce you to the other teens. But I'll have to warn you, they have some strange... pets that you need to keep quiet about from your tribe when they come.” Kára cocked her head to the side with a confused look. “How do you feel about dragons Kara?”

They seem nice, my father said when I was little I wanted a Terrible Terror as a pet until Oswald told me dragons were untamable and even a small dragon like that could hurt me. Kára wrote on the dirt. When father was away I sometimes went to the top of the island to watch some stray dragons that would come around.

“Well it looks like you'll get along well with Hiccup and his friends.” Stoick chuckled before motioning for her to follow him. “And you'll like the pets I mentioned earlier.”


	2. Discovered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kára meets some new friends but now she must hide her identity from them as the Berserkers arrive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure when I'll be updating every chapter, but I'll try to do weekly chapters, like maybe on Fridays since that's when I'm not busy with school

“...and this here is our arena, where we used to kill dragons.” Stoick said gesturing to the large some arena they were approaching.

Kára could see a few people inside, as well as a few...dragons? Now that was a bit odd. As they walked in, several of the dragons turned their heads to look at them as didn't he heads of the teens of Berk.

“Hiccup, I'd like you to meet someone.” Stoick announced as a boy shorter than Kára with messy auburn hair walked over to them with a large dark dragon. “This is Kára, she'll be staying with us for a while until her uncle returns. Kára, this is my son Hiccup.”

“Nice to meet you.” The teen greeted, giving her a warm smile and extended his hand. Kára returned the smile and shook his hand before she started to scratch something in the dirt.

_ It's a pleasure to meet the dragon master himself _

“Oh...uh thank you...I guess?” Hiccup looked to his father. “Dad is she...you know…”

“So she's mute like Gothi?” One of the teens, a muscular boy seated on the neck of a Monstrous Nightmare asked in a bored tone. “Well now we have someone else to scold us by scribbling on the ground.”

“Kára says she'll yank you off your dragon and kick you where it hurts if you're going to be disrespectful.” Hiccup said, reading what the newcomer just wrote on the floor and frowned. “Watch the language!”

“Is she missing her tongue?” One of the other teens asked, a lanky blonde girl seated on the neck of a Zippleback with a boy who Kára guessed was her brother who sat on the opposite head. “Cuz that'd be pretty cool and prove that she's mute.”

“But Gothi isn't missing her tongue, and she doesn't talk.” Hiccup pointed out and glanced at Kára. She opened her mouth and stuck her tongue out to show him. “Yeah she has one.

The other teens got off their dragons to walk over to them and introduced themselves. The two blondes with the Zippleback we're Ruffnut and Tuffnut, the boy on the Monstrous Nightmare was Snotlout, a blonde girl who was with the Nadder was Astrid, and a large blonde boy with the Gronckle was Fishlegs. And the dragons were Stormfly (the Nadder), Meatlug (the Gronckle), Hookfang (the Monstrous Nightmare), Barf and Belch (the Zippleback) and Toothless (the large black dragon that Hiccup said was a Night Fury).

“So Kára, where are you from?” Astrid asked once the introductions were made. Kára was about to write down where she was from when Stoick stopped her.

“She's from the Peaceable tribe, her father is a friend of mine and asked me to look after her.” The chief answered quickly.

“I didn't know Peaceable tribe let their teens have tattoos.” Snotlout commented, nodding at the soft blue stripes on Kára’s arms and shoulders.

_Well you've never been to our island, so you don't know of our customs_. Kára wrote, catching onto what Stoick was trying to do. _They're our coming of age tattoos, after we turn thirteen we get them if we want._

“Our mom won't let us get tattoos, Tuff has one that he just drew on his side.” Ruffnut laughed. “Everyone was so convinced it was a tattoo until I dropped a bucket of water on him.”

“That's not funny!” Tuffnut protested protested angrily. “I was going to get it permanent!”

“Remind me to talk to your mother about that.” Stoick muttered before raising his voice. “Anyways, I expect you to treat Kára nicely and maybe show her around a little more. She has no friends here, and since you lot are closest in age to her, you can befriend her.”

“She's in good hands Stoick.” Astrid assured him and turned to Kára. “I hope you don't mind dragons, maybe when you get used to being on Berk you can get one of your own.”

_I did always want to own a Terrible Terror when I was little._ Kára responded. _I always wanted to be close to a dragon, but back home I couldn't get close to one without nearly getting bitten or burned_.

“Well here you don't have anything to worry about.” Hiccup assured her as Toothless walked up to Kára and nuzzled her elbow. “Dragons are actually pretty calm creatures, they only attack in self defense or if you're in their territory or near a nest of theirs.”

“Unless you're Snotlout, who gets burned every few hours.” Ruffnut snickered and her brother laughed.

“I heard that!” Snotlout protested angrily and glared at the giggling twins. “I'd stay away from them, they cause mayhem.”

_I'm used to crazy people._ Kára replied and gave him a look. _Perhaps you should be the one I should actually be staying away from?_

“Yeah stay away from Snotlout, he's more destructive than the twins.” Astrid commented, earning a “hey!” from Snotlout.

“Okay you know what, from now on you are officially our best friend and we're going to make Snotlout catch you a Terror!” Tuffnut announced and gave Kára a wide grin.

“Oh no, there is no way I am catching one of those sneaky little pests!” Snotlout snapped and the two siblings gave each other smirks.

“Hey! Uh let's get you settled in at my house, shall we?” Hiccup suggested, ushering Kára towards the doors of the academy with Stoick and Toothless right behind them. Once they were out, Hiccup gave a sigh of relief and looked to Kára apologetically. “I'm sorry, they're not always like this I promise. And their weirdness won't be so...weird once you get to know them a little more.”

_As I said earlier, I'm used to the weirdness._ Kára wrote and gave him a gentle smile before scribbling on the ground again. _It's better than being around people who treat me differently just for being mute. And they seem like good friends, I look forward to getting to know all of them and befriending them myself._

“Oh! Well that's great to hear then, I'm sure the twins will enjoy having a friend who isn't weirded out by their weirdness.”

_ It just takes a lot of practice to build an immunity to it. _

* * *

 

“What's with the hand gestures, I thought we were finished learning hand signals.” Snotlout commented as he walked into the academy with Hookfang as Fishlegs, Hiccup, Astrid and Kára stopped what they were doing. The four were seated on crates and barrels with their hands out in different positions.

“Kára is trying to show us a way to communicate better with her.” Hiccup explained. “Apparently writing with her staff is a bit tiring so she's been teaching us hand signals to tell us certain things like 'I'm hungry’, 'stop it', it's very fun and interesting.”

“I know right? I've been trying to write down the ones I've learned to memorize them!” Fishlegs commented excitedly. “It would be very helpful if we had to send signals to each other discreetly without having our plans discovered by the Outcasts!”

“Eh...sounds kind of boring, but whatever.” Snotlout said with a shrug. “Anyways what did you call us here for Hiccup?”

“My dad wanted us to hide all the dragons, the Berserkers are coming.” Hiccup replied and Kára began to make a series of hand signals with a startled look on her face. “Uh...yeah my dad mentioned it this morning, remember?”

Kára facepalmed and looked to Astrid in distress before making a series of hand gestures to her and Fishlegs.

“Kára what's the matter?” Astrid asked, noticing the teen's distress. “What are you so upset about?”

“She says...Berserkers and Peaceables don't get along, and that she wishes to stay away from the Berserkers.” Fishlegs translated and Kára nodded before making more hand signals. “Especially Dagur.”

“Huh, I always thought the two tribes got along.” Snotlout said with a frown.

“Well let's just keep Kára away from the Berserkers, especially Dagur.” Hiccup suggested. “In fact, you can...hide in the woods with Toothless and the other dragons!”

“I don't think that will be a good idea, knowing Dagur he'll head to the woods out of boredom just to hunt for dragons.” Astrid pointed out. “Just let her stay in the Mead Hall or in the forge.”

Kára took her staff that was leaning against the crate she sat at and scribbled on the floor, _I'll stay in the forge, not like Dagur will be going in there._

“Good plan! Head over there and stay there while we round up the dragons. I'll be sure to keep Dagur from the forge.

* * *

 

“What you doin’ in here lass?” Kára looked up from her carving to find Gobber at the entrance of the forge. “Ah, avoidin’ Berserkers?”

Kára nodded before getting to her feet and placed the knife back on the table she had grabbed it from. So far the only people who knew she was a Berserker were Stoick and Gobber, hence why she had been wanting to avoid being seen by Dagur or the Berserkers to keep the Berkians from thinking she was some sort of spy for her tribe.

“Believe me, if I wasn't Stoick's right hand man I'd be hidin’ from them here too.” Gobber chuckled as he walked into the forge. “Ah...bad news though, Dagur is chief and by the looks of it you knew.”

_That retirement story is a lie, Oswald would never stand down to hand his crown to his maniac son._ Kára scribbled and gave Gobber an annoyed look before scribbling some more. _Believe me, I was just as shocked when I heard but my father and I don't believe it. It's why he left me here, to search for Oswald because we think Dagur banished him._

“Interestin’ theory, but who knows.” The blacksmith said with a shrug. “Well you might as well get down before Dagur sees-”

“Kára?” Kara froze at the sound of her name and slowly turned around to see the one Viking she was hoping never to see again since she left home. Outside if the forge was Dagur, with a surprised look on his face.

“And I spoke too soon.” Gobber muttered.

“Kára! Old friend what are you doing here?” Dagur exclaimed, his surprised express morphing into a happy one. Kára frowned and threw up a series of hand signals before grabbing her staff. “Oh come on, aren't you going to say hi, or even bow to your chief?” Dagur asked as he moved towards the entrance of the forge, only to be blocked off by Gobber.

"Gobber, just pretend you didn't see Kára." Stoick wanted as he approached the forge. Ignoring him, the teen walked to the other side of the forge to where Kára watching him carefully.

"Oh come on, you're not happy to see your old friend?" Dagur asked as Kára grabbed a piece of parchment off the table and a piece of coal from the floor before scribbling on it and shoved the paper to Dagur. He frowned and slot started to make a series of hand signals, much to the surprise of the two adults and Kára. She threw a glare at him before making some signals herself, to which Dagur responded with his own and grinned. "Guess you're not the only one who knows this, took me a long time to know this so we could communicate!"

 _Don't act like we're friends you ass!_ Kára signed angrily. _And don't you dare tell Hiccup or his friends that I'm a Berserker._

 _Oh, don't you know? Apparently the Berkians no longer kill dragons and are using them to build an army._ Dagur signed back, to which Kara frowned.

 _That's a lie, I've been on this island for two weeks and I have not seen a single dragon._ That last part was a lie, but she knew full well that Hiccup and his friends were not making an army.

With a shrug, Dagur stepped away from the forge. "Anyways, feel free to join us in the Mead Hall when we finish the tour. It'd be fitting to have the daughter of my father's right-hand man with us since that job would automatically go to you when your father left."

In response, Kára raised her hand and dropped down four fingers, leaving the middle finger raised. Dagur looked at her in confusion before shrugging and walking back down to his men. Once his back was turned, Kára stuck her tongue out at him before turning back to Stoick and Gobber.

"Well, that went well." Gobber commented. "I guess..."

"Hiccup and the others don't know yet, I best make sure Dagur doesn't tell them." Stoick muttered as he walked away from the forge. "Feel free to come to the Mead Hall Kára, just to be sure Dagur doesn't say anything."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to ask my sister if sign language was a thing back in the early centuries and she found that sign language was a thing in early 6 BC so...in a way it was a thing?
> 
> Anyways, this isn't exactly historically accurate, but I love the idea of the trying to learn sign language Dagur already knows it and actually taking the time to learn it to understand Kára
> 
> More of this will be explained in later chapters


End file.
